Journaling is the ability to record all communications, including email communications, in an organization for use in the organization’s email retention or archival strategy. To meet an increasing number of regulatory and compliance requirements, many organizations must maintain records of communications that occur when employees perform daily business tasks.

Mailbox archiving is slightly different from journaling. Mailbox archiving refers to backing up the data, removing it from its native environment, and storing it elsewhere, therefore reducing the load of data storage. Policies can be used to determine what kind of messages are archived. For instance, you can archive messages older than 6 months etc.

The following list illustrates some of the more well-known regulations where journaling may help.